Sunday, September 7, 2014

The Mets' Hitting Record David Wright May or May Not Want

David Wright has usually been a spectator when the home run apple has risen at Citi Field. (Photo by Kathy Kmonicek/AP)

David Wright will be the first to tell you that he's had a disappointing season. Entering Sunday's rubber match against the Cincinnati Reds, Wright is batting .270 with eight home runs and 63 RBI. His .371 slugging percentage would not only represent a career-low for Wright, but it would also be lower than his .377 lifetime on-base percentage (which was .382 coming into the 2014 campaign).

Needless to say, Wright has not done many positive things to help the Mets' struggling offense in 2014. However, he is close to accomplishing something with his bat that has never been done by a Met in a single season.

There are currently eight players in franchise history who have driven in 60 or more runs in a season that did not see the player reach double digits in home runs. The chart below lists those eight players and adds a ninth - David Wright - with his numbers entering today's game. The chart is sorted by runs batted in and also lists the number of home runs hit by each player during his tenure with the team.

Player

Year

Home Runs

RBI

Career HR as a Met

Dave Magadan

1990

6

72

21

Joel Youngblood

1980

8

69

38

Lance Johnson

1996

9

69

10

John Stearns

1979

9

66

46

Daniel Murphy

2012

6

65

48

David Wright

2014

8

63

230

Gregg Jefferies

1991

9

62

42

Doug Flynn

1979

4

61

5

Rey Ordoñez

1999

1

60

8

As of today, David Wright has the sixth-highest RBI total of all players in Mets history who failed to hit a minimum of ten home runs in a season. Wright needs seven RBI in the team's last 20 games to become the second Mets player to have a 70-RBI campaign without the benefit of a double-digit home run total. Should Wright drive in ten runs before the end of the season without hitting more than one ball out of the park, he'd set a new team record, becoming the most prolific single season run-producer of all Mets players who failed to hit 10 HR.

What makes Wright's name look completely out of place on the list above is that Wright has 230 career home runs, which are second in franchise history behind Darryl Strawberry's lifetime total of 252. Incredibly, the other eight players listed above combined to hit 218 homers during their time with the Mets, or a dozen fewer than Wright has hit by himself. (That number can still rise, as Daniel Murphy is still active.)

Wright owns or will own most of the Mets' hitting records, but this is one single-season achievement he probably wasn't counting on. Dave Magadan, who hit 21 home runs in seven seasons as a Met, most likely never expected to hold on to this unusual team record forever. But he surely never thought it would be David Wright who was about to knock him off his perch.

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